Simchat Torah is more than just a calendar holiday.

True, it was never mentioned in the Torah, and the Talmud simply calls the holiday the “second day of Sh'mini Atzeret.”

Simchat Torah is basically the day when we wind back the Torah scroll and mark the beginning of a cycle.

But how can anyone ignore its significance when it's not only a calendar holiday, but a community holiday? How can a historian look at Simchat Torah's development and call it—my favorite holiday—a simple mark in the cycle of time?